Divinities in Twilight

Adventure 1, part 3: Gresham's Law

13

APR/16

The party decides to investigate the few leads they have. They take the strange coins found on the cultist to a few merchants, who don’t know anything about them, but finally visit a myantari who’s an expert coin dealer. The little merchant recoils from the coinage, declaring them to be cursed – and says that these coins are only minted in the Iron Dome.

A little taken aback, the party takes the coins to the Infinites; after some back-and-forth with an officer and some bureaucratic wrangling, one of the Infinites’ experts confirms that the coins are, indeed, coined in Adramalech’s name – and possibly inside the Iron Dome.

The Infinites also confirm the identities of the two slain men: Ahab and Mikael, a pair of long-time merchants who worked for Shady Valley Trading, an herb-trading company.

The caravan is going to be in Bazaar for a few more days, so the players meet up with them in the Caravan Quarter. There, the players find out that the pair had recently sold a huge shipment of stracotum herb to a strange outfit known as Unquestionable Goods and Co.; they’d paid well above market price and with freshly smelted gold bars.

Stracotum, as several of the party members knew, is an herb used to create healing potions due to its ability to affect the flow of energy in other living things. That same property means that the herb can also be used for … darker purposes. The group, convinced it’s found its quarry, quickly finds and visits Unquestionable Goods.

The “caravan” rented on the full-size lot consists of a single, windowless car surrounded by milling mercenaries. There’s no sign of other cars or even pack animals. Cautious, the players approach, and a Southron merchant bounds out of the caravan; after finding that they have no mercantile business, he tries to shoo them away, and goes back into the caravan.

The party tries to stop him, but the guards block the way. Their glassy eyes and thousand-yard stares suggest that there’s something wrong with them – but that doesn’t stop the party from cutting them down after hostilities begin. (Who exactly drew first is still a mystery.)